140 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES. 



of the guts of the marsh, and concealing it among 

 the reeds, directs the other to draw and reduce 

 his charges. This being done, after bidding 

 him fix his eyes on a particular spot where the 

 tide is leaving the mud bare, he knocks quickly 

 with his brass rowlocks on the gunwale of the 

 boat. A sharp, peculiar cry, caught up and re- 

 peated from a hundred throats, is immediately 

 heard, a remarkably neat, trim looking bird in 

 a sort of quaker motley, suddenly runs out upon 

 the mud, jutting up its tail and erecting its head 

 with a curious air, as if to inquire what is 

 wanted; the gun is levelled the trigger touched, 

 and the stranger has "mudded" his first rail. 

 He springs up in his ambush in hot haste to 

 secure the prize, but his companion, repeating 

 his commands to keep quiet, knocks again. The 

 small hubbub, consisting of many and rapid re- 

 iterations of the monosyllable crek, again arises ; 

 a second bird appears on the same spot, and 

 immediately shares the fate of the first. 



" Now," says the operator, who it appears 

 from the pole projecting over the stern and the 

 square tin box, carefully stowed away in the 

 bow, is to initiate his friend still deeper in the 

 mysteries of rail shooting, before the day is 

 spent, " now re-load, and when another bird 



